Who
is the Messiah the Jews are expecting to come? Why did the Jews
reject Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah? These two questions
often seem a mystery to many Christians as they read the Bible
and study the prophets. Before Yeshua, the Jews were waiting
for the Messiah, but when Yeshua came and died, he did not
fulfill this expectation.

Today, Judaism still waits for the coming of the Messiah, but
who are they expecting? What qualifications need to met by the
Messiah. Moses Ben Maimon (Maimonides), also called
Rambam[1]
(1135-1204), wrote in his Thirteen Articles of Faith[2],
that belief in the Messiah was required for a Jew to be
resurrected. The 12th and 13th articles
both deal with Redemption, which will come in the days of
Messiah.

12. I
believe with a complete faith in the coming of the Messiah; and
even though he tarry, nevertheless I await him everyday that he
should come.

13. I believe
with a complete faith that there will be resurrection of the
dead at a time when the will will arise from the Creator,
blessed be His name, and may His remembrance be exalted for all
eternity[3]

Maimonides
further explains in his work on the Halakhic code, the
Yad haHazaqa (“The Strong Hand”), also known as the
Mishne Torah[4]
(Second Torah) the view of redemption and the role Messiah will
play. Maimonides summarizes the Jewish expectation of the
Messiah. But the expectation of Messiah, is not limited to
Maimonides comments, quotes from the Talmud, Targum, Midrash,
Zohar and other writings give us a vivid picture of the
expectation in the Jewish world of the times of Messiah.
Messianic expectation in Rabbinic times (A.D.135-1750) and in
the time of Yeshua may have changed over the years. For example
in the time of Yeshua, The Temple existed and Israel was not
scattered abroad as is the case today. In the days of
Maimonides, there was no Israel and no Temple, and Jews were
persecuted in Europe. Here we quote from Raphael Patai’s
work, The Messiah Texts on pages 322-327[5],
his translation of the Mishne Torah, Maimonides writes
the following.

________________________________

"King
Messiah will arise in the future and will restore the kingship
of David to its ancient condition, to its rule as it was at
first. And he will rebuild the Temple
and gather the exiled of Israel. And in his days all the laws
will return as they were in the past. They will offer up
sacrifices, and will observe the Sabbatical years and the
jubilee years with regard to all the commandments stated in the
Torah. And he who does not believe in him, or he who does not
await his coming, denies not only the [other] prophets, but also
the Torah and Moses our Master. For, behold, the Torah
testifies about him [the Messiah], as it is written,

The
Lord will return your captivity and have compassion upon thee,
and will return and gather thee from all the peoples whiter the
Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine that are
dispersed be in the uttermost parts of heaven, from thence will
the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers
possessed, and thou shalt possess it (Deut. 30:3-5)

And
these are things which are explicitly stated in the Torah, and
they comprise all the things which are said by the prophets.
Even in the section “Balaam” it is said and there he prophesied
about the two Messiahs: about the first Messiah who was David
who saved Israel
from the from the hands of its enemies, and about the last
Messiah, who will arise from among David’s children and who will
save
Israel
at the End. And there he says:

I see him but
not now
((Num. 24:17), this refers to David; I behold him but not
nigh (ibid.) this refers to King Messiah; A star shall
step forth out of Jacob (ibid.) this refers to King David;
A star shall step forth out of Jacob (ibid.), this refers
to David; and a scepter shall rise out of Israel (ibid.) this
refers to King Messiah…

And think
not that the Messiah must perform signs and portents and bring
about new things in the world, or that he will resuscitate the
dead, or the like. Not so. For, behold, R. Akiba was one of the
greatest of the sages of the Mishna, and he was a follower of
King Ben Koziba [Bar Kokhba], and he said about him that he was
King Messiah. And he and the sages of his generation thought
that he was King Messiah, until he was slain because of the
sins. As soon as he was slain it became evident to them that he
was not the Messiah. And the sages had asked of him neither
sign nor a portent. And the essence of the matter is that the
laws and ordinances of this Torah are forever and ever, and one
must neither add to them or subtract from them.

And if there
should arise from the House of David a king, who studies the
Torah and occupies himself with the commandments as his father
David had, according to the written and oral Torah; and if he
forces all Israel to follow the Torah and observe its rules; and
if he fights the wars of the Lord—then he must be presumed be
the Messiah. And if he succeeds in his acts, and rebuilds the
Temple
in its place, and gathers the exiled of Israel—then
he certainly is the Messiah. And he will repair the whole world
to serve the Lord together, as it is written, For then will
I turn to the peoples a pure language that they may call upon
the name of the Lord to serve Him with one consent (Zeph.
3:9)

It should not
come to one’s mind that in the days of the Messiah anything in
the customary order of the world will be annulled, or that there
will be something new in the order of Creation. For the world
will continue in its path. And that which Isaiah said, the
wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down
with the kid (Isa. 11:6), is but an allegory and a riddle.
The true meaning of it is that Israel will dwell in safety with
the wicked of the idolaters who are likened to a wolf and a
leopard….And all of them will return to faith of truth, and they
will neither rob nor despoil, but will eat the things which are
permitted, in pleasure, together with Israel, as it is written,
The lion shall eat straw like the ox (Isa. 11:7). And
likewise, all the similar things said about the Messiah are but
allegories. And in the days of the Messiah it will become known
to everybody what thing the allegory signified and to what thing
it alluded.

The
sages said that the only difference between this world and the
days of the Messiah will be with regard to the enslavement to
the kingdoms. It appears from the plain meaning of the words of
the prophets that at the beginning of the days of the Messiah,
there will be the war of Gog and Magog. And that prior to the
war of Gog and Magog, a prophet will arise to straighten Israel
and prepare their hearts, as it is written, Behold, I will
send to you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great
and terrible day of the Lord (Mal. 4:5) And he will come
not to declare the pure impure, or the impure pure; not to
declare unfit those who are presumed to be fit, nor to declare
fit those who are held to be unfit; but for the sake of peace in
the world….And there are those among the sages who say that
prior to the coming of the Messiah will come Elijah. But all
these things and their likes, no man can know how they will be
until they will be. For they are indistinct in the writings of
the prophets. Neither do the sages have a tradition about these
things. It is rather, a matter of interpretation of the
Biblical verses. Therefore there is a disagreement among them
regarding these matters. And in any case, these are mere
details which are not of the essence of the faith. And one
should definitely not occupy oneself with the matter of legends,
and should not expatiate about the midrashim that deal
with these and similar things. And one should not make
essentials out of them. For they lead neither to fear nor to
love [of God]. Neither should one calculate the End. The sages
said, “May the spirit of those who calculate the End. The sages
said, “May the spirit of those who calculate the End be blown
away” But let him wait and believe in the matter generally, as
we have explained.

In
the days of King Messiah, when his kingdom is established and
all Israel are gathered into it, the descent of all of them will
be confirmed by him through the Holy Spirit which will rest upon
him, as it is written, And he shall sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and
purge them as gold and silver ( Mal. 3:3), And he will
first purify the Children of Levi and will say: “This is of
priestly descent, and this is of Levitic descent.” And he will
reject those who are not descended of Israel, as it written,
And the Tirshatha [governor] said to them that they should not
eat the most holy things till there stood up a priest with Urim
and Thummin (Ezra 2:63) From this you learn that the
presumption of descent will be confirmed, and those with
established descent will be announced by the Holy Spirit. And
he will establish the descent not from Israel [in
general] but from each tribe and tribe. For he will announce
that this one is from such and such a tribe, and this one from
such and such a tribe….

The
sages and the prophets yearned for the days of the Messiah not
in order they should rule over the whole world, and not in order
they should lord it over the idolaters, not in order that the
nations should elevate them, and not in order that they should
eat and drink and rejoice; but in order they should devote
themselves to the Torah and its wisdom, and that there be nobody
to oppress them and to negate, so they should merit life in the
World to Come…

And in that
time there will be neither hunger nor war, neither jealousy nor
competition, but goodness will spread over everything. And all
the delights will be as common as dust. And the whole world will
have no other occupation but only to know the Lord. And
therefore Israel will be great sages, and knowers of secret
things, and they will attain a knowledge of their Creator as far
as the power of man allows, as it is written, For the earth
shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters covers
the sea (Isa. 11:9)"
(Maimonids, Yad haHazaqa, Shoftim, Hilkhot
M’lakhim 11-12)
__________________

Reading from
Maimonides we can define the basic points of Messianic
expectation from the Jewish perspective. Maimonides
crystallizes the points, according to Judaism, what the Messiah
needs to do, if he is Messiah. To summarize, Maimonides writes,
the Messiah will do the following.

ØIn
Messiah’s reign the chief occupation on the earth will be the
study of the Lord.

Ø

Maimonides
writes, if these events happen then the person is Messiah.
Maimonides built on what the sages who preceded him expected,
such as Rabbi Akiba who proclaimed Bar Kokhba was the Messiah.

Messiah
Son of Joseph

Maimonides
does a great job in condensing Jewish belief and expectation in
the Messiah. The Jewish beliefs and expectations of the Messiah
is wide and varied. Through the Talmud, and other writing we
see the expectation of two Messiahs. One called Messiah Son
of David, and the other Messiah Son of Joseph
actually precedes the Messiah son of David and is killed in the
battle of Gog and Magog. Messiah Son of David then asks the
Lord to resurrect the slain Messiah Son of Joseph. The
Babylonian Talmud refers to the relationship between these
two Messiah’s.

9 "It shall
be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that
come against Jerusalem.
10 "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants
of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they
will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him
as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one
grieves for a firstborn. Zechariah 12:9-10

And the land
shall mourn (Zech. 12:12). What is the reason of the mourning?
R. Dosa and the rabbis differ about it. R. Dosa says: “[They
will mourn] over the Messiah who will be slain, “ and the say;
“[The will mourn] over the Evil Inclination which will be killed
[in the days of the Messiah]…” Babylonian Talmud Sukkah 52a[7]

The rabbis
have taught; The Holy One, blessed be He, will say to Messiah
ben David, may he be revealed soon in our day!; “Ask if Me
anything, and I shall give it to you, for it is written, The
Lord said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee, ask of Me and I will give the nations for thy inheritance
(Psalms 2:7-8)” And when he will see that Messiah ben Joseph
will be slain, he will say before Him: “Master of the World! I
ask nothing of you except life! God will say to him: “Even
before you said, ‘life,’ your father David prophesied about you
as it is written, He asked life of the, Thou gavest it him
(Ps. 21:5) Babylonian Talmud Sukkah 52a[8],[9]

And the land
shall mourn, every family apart (Zech. 12:12). Two have
interpreted this verse. One said: “This is the mourning over the
Messiah,” and the other said: “This is the mourning over the
Evil Inclination” [which will be killed by God in the Messianic
days]. Yerushalmi Talmud Sukka 55b[10],[11]

According to
Jewish scripture and tradition, at the End of Days the
nations of the world come against Jerusalem in the battle of Gog
and Magog. Messiah ben Joseph leads the armies of Israel in
battle and dies in the process. Both Elijah and Messiah ben
Joseph are forerunners to Messiah ben David, who will come after
a period of struggle and trying for the descendents of Israel.
Messiah ben Joseph is seen as the pierced Messiah of Zechariah
12:10.

The Messiah
Suffers

The idea of
a “Suffering Messiah” to many in Judaism is a Christian concept,
this is not the case however. In some rabbinical traditions,
the Messiah, who was one of the first thoughts of God, is in
heaven waiting for the day of redemption. In heaven, Elijah and
the patriarchs attend to, him. In one scene, from the Talmud the
Messiah sits at the gates of Rome unwinding and winding bandages
of the suffering and poor, waiting for the call.

R.
Y’hoshu’a ben Levi once found Elijah standing at the entrance of
the cave or R. Shim’on ben Yohai…He asked him: “When will the
Messiah come?” He said to him: “Go, ask him himself” “And
where does he sit? “At the entrance of the city [of Rome]” “And
what are his marks?” “His marks are that he sits among the poor
who suffer of diseases, and while all of them unwind and
rewind[the bandages of all their wounds] at once, he unwinds and
rewinds them one by one, for he says, ‘Should I be summoned,
there must be no delay.’” R. Y’hoshu’a went to him and said to
him; “Peace be unto you, my Master and Teacher!” He said to him:
“Peace unto you, Son of Levi!” He said to him: when will the
Master come?” He said to him: “Today.” R. Y’hoshu’a went to
Elijah, who asked him; “What did he tell you?” R. Y’hoshu’s said
“[He said to me:] Peace be unto you, Son of Levi!” Elijah said
to him: “[By saying this] he assured the World to Come for you
and your father.” R. Y’hoshu’a then said to Elijah: “The
Messiah lied to me, for he said ‘today I shall come,’ and he did
not come.” Elijah said: “This is what he told you: “Today ,
If you but hearken to His voice’ (Ps. 95:7)
(Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 98a)[12]

The fifth
house [in the heavenly Paradise] is built of onyx and jasper
stones, and inlaid stones, and silver and gold, and good pure
gold. And around it are rivers of balsam, and before its door
flows the River Gihon. And [it has] a canopy of all trees of
incense and good scent. And[in it are] beds of gold and silver,
and embroidered garments. And there sits Messiah ben David and
Elijah and Messiah ben Ephriam. And there is a canopy of
incense trees as in the Sanctuary which Moses made in the
desert. And all its vessels and pillars are of silver, its
covering is gold, its seat is purple. And in it is Messiah ben
David who loves Jerusalem. Elijah of blessed memory takes hold
of his head, places it in his lap and holds it, and says to him:
“Endure the sufferings and the sentence of your Master who makes
you suffer because of the sin of Israel.” And thus it is
written; He was wounded because of our transgressions, he was
crushed because of our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5) until the
time when the comes. (“Midrash Konen” BhM 2:29-30)[13]

Elijah before
the Messiah

The Jewish
Bible and rabbinical writers clearly teach the role of Elijah as
forerunner of the Messiah. The final last prophet, Malachi
foretells the coming of Elijah, who caught up into heaven,
awaits the great terrible day of the Lord, when he will be
revealed to Israel.

Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly
a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated
the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.2 Kings 2:11

5 Behold, I
will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great
and dreadful day of the Lord.
6 And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and
strike the earth with a curse." Malachi 4:5-6

Today, the
Jews every year commemorate the wait for Elijah at the Passover
Seder meal; he is welcomed in every Jewish home with a large
goblet of wine placed in the middle of the festive table for
him. According to some traditions there is a 45 day period
following the death of Messiah Ben Joseph, before and the
appearance of Messiah Ben David, its during this period,
Elijah the forerunner of the Messiah makes his
appearance.

Elijah said
to Rav Y’huda the brother of Rav Sala the Pious: “The world will
exist for no less than eighty-five jubilees [that is, 4250
years], and in the last jubilee the Son of David will come.” He
asked him: “In its beginning or at its end?” He answered: “I do
not know.” [Rav Y’huda then asked:] “Will it [the last jubilee]
be complete or not?” He said to him: “I do not know.” Rav Ashi
said; “This is what Elijah told him; ‘Until the last jubilee
expect him not; from then on expect him.’” Babylonian Talmud
Sanhedrin 97b[14]

At that time
Michael the great [celestial] prince will rise and blow the
shofar three times…and Messiah ben David and Elijah will be
revealed. And the two of them will go to Israel who will be [at
that time] in the desert of the peoples, and Elijah will say to
them; “This is the Messiah.” And he will return their heart
[which will be faint] and will strengthen their
hand… (T’fillat
R. Shim’on ben Yohai, BhM 2:125)[15],[16]

Gog and Magog

The battle
preceding the death of Messiah ben Joseph is the battle of Gog
and Magog, when the nations of the North, Gog and Magog, Persia
(Iran), Libya and their allies descend on Israel to after they
(The Jews) have been gathered out of the nations after a long
period of desolation (Ezekiel 38-39).

2 "Son of
man, set your face against Gog, of the land
of
Magog,
the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against
him, 3 "and say, 'Thus says the Lord God: "Behold, I am against
you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.11
to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand
against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a
people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock
and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land. 23 "Thus I will
magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the
eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord."
'
Ezekiel 38:2,3,11,23

5 "You shall
fall on the open field; for I have spoken," says the Lord God. 6
"And I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security
in the coastlands. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.
Ezekiel 39:5-6

R. Y’huda
haLevi bar Shalom, and R. Pinhas haKohen, and Rav Huna, all the
three of them said that Gog and Magog would come against
Israel in the future to come three times, and the third time
they would come up against Jerusalem and go to Judah, and
dictate to them, for they are might men…

Behold I will
make Jerusalem a cup of staggering unto all the peoples round
about (Zech. 12:2). What is “cup of staggering”? [It means]
that He will in the future make peoples drink the cup of
staggering of blood….when they [Gog and Magog] go up there, what
do they? They assign two warriors to every one of the Children
of Israel. Why? So that they should not escape. When the heroes
of Judah ascend and reach Jerusalem, they pray in their
heart…In that hour the Holy One, blessed be He, gives heroism to
Judah
and they draw their weapons and smite those men on their right
and on their left, and slay them
(Midrash Tehillim, Psalm 119, ed. Buber pp. 488-89)[17]

Two men
remained in the camp. The name of one of them was Eldad, and
then name of the other Medad. And the Holy Spirit descended upon
them…and both prophesied as one and said: “In the End of Days,
Gog and Magog and their armies will fall into the hands of
King Messiah, and for seven years the Children of Israel
will light fire form the shares of their weapons; they will not
go out to the forest and will not cut down a [single] tree..
(Targum. Yer. To Num. 11;26)[18]

Armilus
leads the armies of Gog

In the end
of day, the armies opposed to Israel
will be lead according to Rabbinical tradition by a man named
Armilus who is the son of Satan, who the world worships as
god and Messiah. He leads the nations against Israel and kills
Messiah ben Joseph (Ephraim) and is then killed by
Messiah ben David in the end. In one Jewish tradition Armilus
is even called the Antichrist. He will persecute Israel,
and be victorious over them for a time of testing.

23
"Thus he said: 'The fourth beast shall be A fourth kingdom on
earth, Which shall be different from all other kingdoms, And
shall devour the whole earth, Trample it and break it in pieces.
24 The ten horns are ten kings Who shall arise from this
kingdom. And another shall rise after them; He shall be
different from the first ones, And shall subdue three kings. 25
He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall
persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to
change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his
hand For a time and times and half a time. 26 'But the court
shall be seated, And they shall take away his dominion, To
consume and destroy it forever. Daniel 7: 23-26

And when the days of the Messiah arrive, Gog and Magog
will come up against the Lord of Israel, because they will hear
that Israel is without a king and sits in safety. Instantly
they will take with them seventy-one nations and go up to
Jerusalem, and they will say; “Pharaoh was a fool to command
that the males [of the Israelites] be killed and to let the
females live. Balaam was an idiot that he wanted to curse them
and did not know that their God had blessed them. Haman was
insane in that he wanted to kill them, and he did not know their
God can save them. I shall not do as they did, but shall fight
against their God first, and thereafter I shall slay them…” And
the Holy One, blessed be He, will say to him; “You wicked one!
You want to wage war against Me? By your life, I shall wage war
against you! Instantly the Holy One, blessed be He will cause
hailstones, which are hidden in the firmament, to descend upon
him, and will bring upon him a great plague… And after him
will arise another king, wicked and insolent, and he will wage
war against Israel
for three months, and his name is Armilus. And these are
his marks; he will be bald, one his eyes will be small, the
other big. His right arm will be only as long as a hand…..And
he will go up to Jerusalem
and will slay Messiah ben Joseph…. And thereafter
will come Messiah ben David….And he will kill the wick
Armilus…And thereafter the Holy One, blessed be He, will gather
all Israel who are dispersed here and there. (Midrash
waYosha[19])

Messiah
comes on the clouds

The
Hebrew Bible and rabbinical writing both teach the Messiah will
come upon the clouds in the end of days to rescue his people
from the nations.

13
"I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the
Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He
came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before
Him. 14 Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His
dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed. Daniel
7:14-14

R.
Alexandri said: “R. Y’hoshua’a ben Levi explained: ‘If they
will be righteous, [the Messiah will come] on the clouds of
heaven (Daniel 7:13);
if they will not be righteous, [he will come] as a poor man
riding upon an ass (Zech. 9:9)….King Shabur [Sapur] said to
Sh’muel: “You say that the Messiah will come upon an ass; I
shall send him a well-groomed horse.” He answered “do you,
perchance, have a horse of a hundred colors?” Babylonian
Talmud Sanhedrin 98a[20]

And
now let us speak in praise of King Messiah who will come in the
future with the clouds of heaven and two Seraphim [fiery angels]
to his right and to his left, as it is written, behold with the
clouds of heaven came one like unto a son of man (Daniel
7:13) (Pirqe
Mashiah, BhM 3:70)[21]

The
Resurrection

Maimonides
in his Thirteen Articles of Faith, states belief in resurrection
is an essential part of Judaism. The 12th article is
faith in a personal Messiah, and the 13th is the
resurrection. According to rabbinical teaching, the
resurrection is linked to the coming of the Messiah. When the
Son of David comes, the first person resurrected, will be the
Son of Joseph, then the rest of Israel.

1
“At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who
stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a
time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation,
Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be
delivered, Every one who is found written in the book. 2 And
many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting
contempt. Daniel 12:1-2

R.
Hiyya bar Yosef said: “In the future the pious will sprout up
and emerge in Jerusalem, as it is said, They will blossom out of
the city like grass of the earth (Ps. 72:16)… And they will rise
up in their garments, as can be concluded from the wheat; If the
wheat, which is buried naked, rises in several clothes, how much
more so the pious who are buried in their clothes.”
Babylonian Talmud Ta’an 2 a[22]

Our master
said two things in the name of R. Helbo: Why did the Fathers
love to be buried in the Land of Israel? Because the dead of the
land of Israel will be the first to come to life in the days of
the Messiah, and they will eat [enjoy] the years of the
Messiah. And R. Hama bar R. Hanina said: “He who dies abroad
and is buried there, two deaths are in his hand….” R. Simon
said: “If so, the righteous who are buried abroad will be the
losers? [Not so,] for what does the Holy One, blessed be He, do?
He hollows out the earth before them, and makes them into
something like a skin bottle, ant they will roll and come until
they reach the Land of Israel. And when they reach the Land of
Israel He put the spirit of life into them they stand up.”
(Midrash Tan. Buber, 1:214)[23]

Jerusalem
in the time of Messiah

The
Messiah is the Son of David who will rule on David’s throne for
eternity. The city from which Messiah will rule will be
Jerusalem according to the Bible and rabbinical tradition. In
the time of Messiah, Jerusalem
will be transformed into the city of King
Messiah.

2
Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain
of the Lord's house Shall be established on the top of the
mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations
shall flow to it. 3 Many people shall come and say, "Come, and
let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the
God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in
His paths." For out of Zion
shall go forth the law, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
Isaiah 2:2-3

7 Of the
increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon
the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and
establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward,
even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this
Isaiah 9:7

Rabba
said in the name of R. Yohanan: “Jerusalem of this World is not
like Jerusalem of the World to Come. Jerusalem of This
world—anybody who wants to go up to visit her, can do so; but to
Jerusalem of the World to Come only those can go up who are
invited to come…” And Rabba said in the name of R. Yohanan:
“In the future, the Holy One, blessed be He, will elevate Jerusalem
by three parasangs…Resh Laqish said: “In the future the Holy
One, blessed be He, will add to Jerusalem a thousand gardens, a
thousand towers, a thousand fortresses, and a thousand passages,
and each of them will be like sepphoris in its tranquil days,
and there were in it 180,000 marketplaces of merchants of pot
dishes.” (Babylonian Talmud Bab. Bath. 75b)[24]

original
name Simeon Bar Kosba , Kosba also spelled Koseba,
Kosiba , or Kochba , also called Bar Koziba Jewish leader
who led a bitter but unsuccessful revolt (AD 132–135)
against Roman dominion in Palestine.

During
his tour of the Eastern Empire in 131, the Roman emperor
Hadrian decided upon a policy of Hellenization to integrate
the Jews into the empire. Circumcision was proscribed, a
Roman colony (Aelia) was founded in Jerusalem, and a temple
to Jupiter Capitolinus was erected over the ruins of the
Jewish Temple.

Enraged by these measures, the Jews rebelled in 132, the
dominant and irascible figure of Simeon bar Kosba at their
head. Reputedly of Davidic descent, he was hailed as the
Messiah by the greatest rabbi of the time, Akiva ben Yosef,
who also gave him the title Bar Kokhba (“Son of the Star”),
a messianic allusion. Bar Kokhba took the title nasi
(“prince”) and struckhis own coins, with the legend “Year 1
of the liberty of Jerusalem.”

The
Roman historian Dion Cassius noted that the Christian sect
refused to join the revolt. The Jews took Aelia by storm and
badly mauled the Romans' Egyptian Legion, XXII Deiotariana.
The war became so serious that in the summer of 134 Hadrian
himself came from Rome to visit the battlefield and summoned
the governor of Britain, Gaius Julius Severus, to his aid
with 35,000 men of the Xth Legion. Jerusalem was retaken,
and Severus gradually wore down and constricted the rebels'
area of operation, until in 135 Bar Kokhba was himself
killed at Betar, his stronghold in southwest Jerusalem. The
remnant of the Jewish army was soon crushed; Jewish war
casualties are recorded as numbering 580,000, not including
those who died of hunger and disease. Judaea was desolated,
the remnant of the Jewish population annihilated or exiled,
and Jerusalem
barred to Jews thereafter. But the victory had cost Hadrian
dear, and in his report to the Roman Senate on his return,
he omitted the customary salutation “I and the Army are
well” and refused a triumphal entry.

Bar
Kokhba was derided by some as “Bar Koziba” (a pun on the
Hebrew word for liar).

In
1952 and 1960–61 a number of Bar Kokhba's letters to his
lieutenants were discovered in the Judaean desert.

[1] Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon,
1135–1204), a native of Spain, is incontestably the
greatest name in Jewish medieval philosophy,

[2] Thirteen Principles a summary of
the basic tenets of Judaism as perceived by the
12th-century Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides. They
first appeared in his commentary on the Mishna, Kitāb
al-Sirāj, as an elaboration on the section Sanhedrin 10,
which sets forth the reasons why a Jew would be denied
resurrection.

[4] extensive commentary on the
Talmud, composed in the 12th century by the renowned
Jewish philosopher and scholar Moses Maimonides. Each of
its 14 volumes deals with a group of laws covering one
subject.